Hanna Jang-Looking Outwards-01

I explored some of the suggested blogs and stumbled upon modern map art that was created by David Hoe (Mini Cloud Studios). What struck me the most about his art was that they were made up of various simple elements such as rectangles and squares. This also reminded me of our first project assignment for 15-104.

Although the small individual elements were rather simple, they made up to produce a very intricate and detailed masterpiece. David Hoe’s modern map art was compared to jigsaw puzzles. The artist himself deconstructed the puzzle to individually color each piece before assembling altogether again with his own custom designed software. The art is made using tools such as Node.js, Google Maps API and node-canvas package.

I had only seen such similar patterns found in modern map art from actual printed maps in my Geology class before. David Hoe’s works made me appreciate maps as a form of art for the first time, since I had only seen it as a tool for navigating purposes before. The additional care to color and shapes in the modern map art compared to regular maps is crucial. However, maybe using a wider variety of patterns could increase the art’s individuality. Overall, I really enjoyed the sense of harmony that the art seems to express.